Honest Emotions
by Angel Sciuto
Summary: Prentiss confesses to Reid that she loves him and leaves it to him to decide how to proceed. ONE SHOT


**A/N:** I found this fic in a drawer and thought I'd put it up. It's a Spencer/Emily one shot and is set as though Emily never left but Alex still joined the team.

Honest Emotions

After a particularly hard case, they were all enjoying a night out together.

"I should get home to my boys." JJ said finally getting up to leave.

"Yeah I should be getting home to relieve Jessica." Hotch replied.

As they left one by one, Reid started to pull out a book. Prentiss grinned.

"You trying to get rid of me Reid?" she said leaning forward. He looked up, only just realising she was still there.

"Sorry I thought you'd left." he answered, closing the book.

"I thought I'd wait until we were alone." Prentiss shrugged. Reid frowned.

"Alone for what?" He asked, a little flustered.

"We've worked together for almost six and a half years and you have one of the highest IQs I've ever seen and you can't figure it out?" She grinned widely. Reid cocked his head to one side and tried to work it out. Unable to come up with an answer, he shook his head.

"Why?" he asked finally. Prentiss laughed lightly.

"You know for someone with your intelligence, I'd have thought you'd have figured it out." Reid rolled his eyes.

"Maybe you could just tell me?" he said, a little frustrated.  
Prentiss grinned and placed a hand on his knee. "You have such an interesting personality, Spencer, and a strange way of looking at the world but I've come to realise that our team wouldn't be the same without you. When I got hurt by Doyle and Hotch relocated me to France, I found myself missing you more than anyone else on the team. And with all that time to myself I realised I...I'm in love with you Spencer." Prentiss explained, her face going red as she spoke. Reid turned away, trying to process what she had just told him.  
"I would say that you've had too much to drink and don't know what you're saying but you've been drinking coffee for the past hour and a half. I...I think I should be getting home. I'll see you in the morning." He said, grabbing his shoulder bag and book and leaving quickly. Prentiss watched him leave and sighed. Somehow she would break through that shield.

When Reid got home, he threw on a movie in Russian to take his mind off things. But Russian only reminded him of Emily. He decided to take a shower but even standing in the water left him with time to think. After a few hours of distracting himself with difficult math problems, Reid climbed into bed.

Dream sequence...

"_She never made it off the table..." _

"_I didn't get to say goodbye..." _

"_Spence, she knew you cared about her." _

"_I miss her every day. I can't stop thinking about her."_

Reid woke with a start. Old memories he thought he had buried had come flooding back.

A few weeks later...

"Hey kid you feeling ok?" Morgan said making Reid jump.

"I'm fine, just uh...lack of sleep." Reid answered distractedly. Morgan raised an eyebrow.

"You sure that's all?"

Reid pretended not to hear him.

"C'mon Reid you can tell me." Morgan said making sure to catch his eye.

"Hotch is signalling us to the round table. We should get in there." Reid said evading Morgan's gaze.

"This one's a big one guys...so some creep has been using ice picks and hammers to crack walnuts of a different kind. Over the last two months four bodies have been found with their skulls cracked open and...uh their brains...uh removed. No idea what creepo is doing with them but police haven't found them at any of the crime scenes." Garcia started as everyone took their seats.

"Please tell me he's not eating them." JJ said shuddering.

"Food for thought." Reid quipped as he flipped through the case file. Everyone stared at him.

"What? Quite a few ancient cultures believed that the greatest source of knowledge came from eating the brains of their enemies." Reid said shrugging. "They also thought that the heart could give them strength and the eyes were said to contain the soul." he finished as JJ shuddered again.

"That's just gross." she replied.

"Word. Anyway Philly PD is waiting for you. I'll run the victims through my databases and call you if anything pops. Stay safe."  
"Wheels up in thirty." Hotch said with a concerned glance at Reid.

By the time they landed, two more bodies had been found. They set up at the PD and while Rossi and Morgan went to the scenes, Reid and Emily went to the coroner's office.

"Are we going to talk about what happened a few weeks ago?" Prentiss asked as they drove.

"I think maybe we should focus on the case." Reid replied, his voice getting high pitched the way it did whenever he was nervous. Prentiss sighed.

"You can't avoid this forever."  
Reid refused to answer.

As the case progressed, Reid found himself unable to focus on anything but Emily.  
"Reid. Hey earth to pretty boy! Did you hear me?" Morgan said waving a hand in front of Reid's face.

"Sorry what?" Reid said shaking his head.

"Have you seen Prentiss? She was headed to talk to the latest vic's family but she hasn't come back. That was four hours ago." Morgan explained. Reid frowned. Emily was in trouble again. He couldn't lose here, not again. At that moment the phone rang.

"Baby Doll, you have me and Reid. Tell me you have something good." Morgan said hitting the speaker button.

"So I tracked Emily's cell phone like you asked and the last place it was active was near a warehouse. I've sent the address to your phones and the others will meet you there. Bring Em home safe. Garcia out." Garcia told them before hanging up. Morgan and Reid's phones beeped with the address just as they climbed into the car.

They met up with Hotch, Rossi, JJ and Alex at the warehouse. As everyone geared up, Reid couldn't help worrying that it would be Doyle all over again.

"Can't lose her, not again..." he muttered.

"Did you say something Reid?" Morgan looked over. Reid shook his head.

As they stormed the warehouse, Reid could feel his heart pounding in his chest. What if they didn't get to her in time?  
They checked everywhere and entered a big room with a table in the middle. Emily was lying on the table, semi-conscious. A man stood over her holding an ice pick, about to use it.

"FBI! Drop the weapon!" Morgan yelled. They moved in surrounding him and he turned to face Morgan. He lifted the ice pick threatening to throw it at Morgan. Hotch fired without hesitation. Before the man's body hit the ground, Reid had untied Emily and led her outside to the waiting ambulance.

"Thanks Reid. You ok?" Prentiss half whispered.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't lose you again. When I thought you were dead all I wanted to do was find some dilaudid and lose myself permanently. I couldn't bear not being with you." Reid stammered, close to tears. Prentiss grinned slightly and reached up off the ambulance trolley to pull him in for a kiss.

"Wow...looks like pretty boy's getting lucky. And in an ambulance no less." Morgan grinned as everyone came outside to see Prentiss kissing Reid.

As they pulled apart, Reid blushed.

"What's wrong Morgan? Jealous?" he said, blushing more. Morgan laughed.

Reid ran his hands through his hair, embarrassed. But he was happy.

_I realise I didn't go into much detail about the case they were working, but that was because I was intentionally focusing on Spencer's reaction to Emily's confession. _

_Also I couldn't resist having Spencer say that line about Food for thought xD_


End file.
